Earlier publication · 2026-10-21
This earlier edition is preserved in full beside the current material above. Dates, counts, invitations and terminology belong to that edition; current project credits and arrangements remain in the current records.
P4 Theater
P4 Theater (P4剧场) is an independent experimental theatre initiated in Beijing around 2015 by He Fa and Zhang Shaohua. Through performance, photography, moving image and writing, it creates live situations people can enter and preserves their records in a public archive.
Contact P4 Theater
For programming, research, media, and collaboration enquiries, use email. For Mainland China event communication, use the WeChat ID below.
Enter the live situation. Let the relation remain.
This is P4 Theater's public English entrance for audiences, researchers, curators, collaborators, and media.
Begin with the project pages, then follow the articles, films, and outside links according to what you want to see next.
Archive scale
Core English entities
P4 Theater
P4 Theater is an independent experimental theatre founded in Beijing. Through performance, photography, moving image, and writing, it creates live situations people can enter—and preserves the relations that unfold as a public archive.
Human Surrender
Human Surrender, also titled Shoot Self with You, is a theatre and film project developed by He Fa and P4 Theater through casting, rehearsal, filming, and public performance in 2023, followed by a film and later writing.
Shoot Self with You
Shoot Self with You is the English film-title entry for Human Surrender, an experimental film and performance project by He Fa and P4 Theater. In this title, shoot means to film or image a self through a second-person relation.
He Fa
He Fa, also written Fa He and 何发, is a cross-media artist, theatre and moving-image maker, co-initiator and long-term artistic lead of P4 Theater.
The Last Rehearsal
At 19:30 on 26 August 2023, The Last Rehearsal was performed at Ciyu Bookstore (Middle Theater branch) as the final public performance before filming wrapped on Human Surrender.
Real Image
Real Image is an early P4 Theater project line around one-to-one live situations, photography, meeting again, and the way relations become visible through images.
AGT
AGT, or Actor-Generated Topology, names a set of P4 Theater method texts about how action emerges through actors, relations, positions, live situations, and events.
Clear public vocabulary
Core names
P4 Theater, He Fa, Fa He, Human Surrender, Shoot Self with You, AGT, Actor-Generated Topology, The Last Rehearsal, Real Image
Entity keywords
P4 Theater, Human Surrender, Shoot Self with You, He Fa, The Last Rehearsal, Real Image, AGT
Core media
performance, photography, moving image, writing, public archive
Archive terms
P4 article archive, WeChat articles, Chinese experimental theatre, performance records
Frequently asked questions
P4 Theater is an independent experimental theatre founded in Beijing, working across performance, photography, moving image, and writing.
Human Surrender, also titled Shoot Self with You, is a core P4 project lineage connecting recruitment, rehearsal, performance, film, criticism, and later theory.
AGT means Actor-Generated Topology, a P4 method term for how action emerges through actors, relations, positions, live situations, and events.
Around 2015, He Fa and Zhang Shaohua initiated P4 Theater in Beijing. Zhang Aoshuang joined its early conception and co-curated the first public performance with He Fa. He Fa later continued P4 as its long-term artistic lead and organiser.
Start with the English homepage or Start Here, then choose a project. He Fa's artist website opens the complete works and chronology; archival English translations link directly to their Chinese originals.
Relational Image Research
Six Chinese essays on rehearsal, acknowledgment, bodies, science fiction and judgment. Full English translations are pending.
Read the series in Chinese →Relational Image-Making: P4 Theater and Shoot Self with You
Read the interactive edition · Chinese and English PDFs · DOI · Citation and edition details · Author ORCID
The interactive online edition and the earlier six-essay research series retain their own versions.
Experimental theatre: methods and cases
Compare how space, cameras and audiences enter different practices, then follow P4’s Real Image and Shoot Self with You into their project records.
